


The Prime Empire

by tashared7



Category: Jay - Fandom, Kai - Fandom, Lego Ninjago, Ninjago - Fandom, lloyd - Fandom, ninja - Fandom, nya - Fandom, unigami - Fandom, wu - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-01-16 00:11:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tashared7/pseuds/tashared7
Summary: : even though we are a few months away from season 12 I wanted to write a story on what my interpretation of it will be based on the information we have so far. Enjoy! The plot is basically the leaked one we got about season 12 recently.When people start disappearing in an enigmatic way after playing the video game empire prime, the ninja must journey into a dangerous video game world that is ruled by the mysterious villain unigami.





	1. Chapter 1

“C’mon. Just a little more....”

“Woah Jay! Have you been playing all night?” asked Cole. 

“Eh just a few hours” replied Jay nonchalantly. 

The truth was he was up all night but he had to finish the lava monster game. It’s a classic. He knew he’d be tired but it was worth it since he was a few moves from winning the game. 

Right before he made it to the finish line, Cole flicked his head and Jay character dissolved into black. 

“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?” yelled Jay. 

Cole unimpressed said “we have training in an hour and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to sit here instead of having some breakfast. 

Jay sent him a seething look and followed him to the kitchen. To be honest he was pretty hungry. He barley ate last night and he was exhausted. When he got to the kitchen Nya was making pancakes. 

“So who wants the first batch?” asked Nya. 

Cole, Kai, and Lloyd all yelled “me” at once. 

Jay was too tired to put up a fight to get the first one and Zane had been pretty quiet after his experience in the first realm. He still felt guilty about betraying his friends. 

“I think I’m gonna go take an Advil. Your voice is hurting my brain” wined Jay as he made his way out of the kitchen. 

“Maybe your head wouldn’t hurt so much if you stopped playing those dumb games and actually ate something” Kai muttered. 

“Whatever! I’ll be back in a minute” Jay retorted. 

He made his way to his room. He shared a bathroom with Cole and because of that it was nearly impossible to find anything in it. He opened his drawer which contained the Advil and took it in one gulp. Before he put it back he saw his caffeine pills which he had been taking to keep him up so that he could play lava monster. He knew Wu was going to pound him into the ground for staying up all night so he popped one so that he could be somewhat Awake. 

When he got back to the kitchen everyone was almost done eating and there was a plate with pancakes reserved for him. He quickly sat down next to Nya. 

“You look like you were hit by a truck” laughed Lloyd. 

This caused the other ninjas including Zane to laugh. 

“Haha you’re so funny! I just want to beat the game then I’ll return to my normal sleeping schedule” retorted Jay. 

To be honest, he couldn’t wait to start sleeping more than three hours a night. After Jay chocked down his pancakes with a grimace they made their way outside. 

After the events with the pyro snakes and neverealm, the ninja made a pact that they would nacer shirk their training. Master Wu was silently waiting for them. They all stood in a line and waiting for him to start. 

“Today we will be practicing meditation and hand to hand combat” 

Jay groaned. Hand to hand is gonna be difficult especially since he had double vision as the moment. 

“We will start with meditation to calm the mind” said Wu as he got into a sitting position with the ninja following. 

It wasn’t even two minutes before Jay drifted off. He’d gotten good at sleeping during meditation but Wu has caught him in the past. 

Jay felt something cold on his back and jumped into the air. “W-what the heck?”

“Master Wu instructed me to wake you after you had started talking in your sleep” smiled Zane. 

Jay turned beet red as the others and even Wu laughed. 

“So....anyone gonna tell me what I said” asked jay nervously. 

“You wouldn’t stop talking about how  
Much you miss mr.cuddly wumps” laughed Nya. 

“Ugh fine laugh it up” said Jay as he got up to stretch and as he did he quickly sent a small shock towards Lloyd making him jump into the air. 

“Oh you’re so gonna get it motor mouth” yelled Lloyd playfully as he charged up his hand. 

“Oh no. How will I ever make it out of here alive” said Jay dramatically as he got into position. 

The others looked to Wu to see if he’d allow this and to their pleasure he nodded. 

Lloyd and Jay circled each other they were about to light their hands with their elemental powers but Wu put his staff down declaring that it must be hand to hand combat without powers. 

Jay had speed over Lloyd. He was the fastest on the team and especially with the caffeine pills in his system. 

Lloyd quickly sent a fist to Jay’s leg which he quickly blokes. He then dove for his arm and he got a nice punch in. He was about to do a roundhouse kick when his vision blurred a bit. A side effect of the pill. Next thing he knew he was on his back. 

“That wasn’t even five minutes. Man!” laughed Cole. 

“Looks like you got some catching up to do jay. Geez and Lloyd started way after us. You gotta pick up the pace” smirked Kai

Jay started to get red out of embarrassment and anger but Nya shot him a sympathetic look and he took a deep breath. After the events in the first realm he and Nya talked about how best to control his anxiety so that he wouldn’t go through what happened in the first realm again. One of the exercises was breathing. 

Still slight embarrassed and mad he took Lloyd’s hand and got up. After the rest of the ninja paired up. 

Lloyd whispered into Jay’s ear “don’t let them bother you. I know playing those video games all night impacted the match but if you ever want to train to get some more practice I’d be happy to”. 

Outwardly jay smiled and nodded but inside he was about to explode. He was tired of them making fun of his skills and making him out to be the weakest ninja. He quickly excused himself and went inside to use the bathroom. 

When he got to the bathroom he threw up. Ever since he was young his anxiety made him throw up. Tears came out of his eyes as he sat by the toilet.

There was a knock on the door and Nya said “Jay! Can I come in please? I want to talk”.

Jay slowly got up and unlocked the door. Nya knew what happened she always did. 

“You know how stupid they can be” smirked Nya. 

“Yeah but it’s not like they aren’t right. I’m the worst ninja on the team” sulked Jay. 

“All you need is more practice” smiled Nya. 

There it was. Even his girlfriend knew he was a bad ninja. He sighed and then smile. Since he was young jay was mostly able to mask his feelings. It stung though that everyone thought he was a failure. 

As they sat in silence a voice from the other side guiltily said “we have a mission”

Jay and Nya opened the door to see Cole looking uncomfortable. 

“I’m really sorry jay. What I said was stupid I wasn’t thinking”. 

“It’s okay” smiled Jay as he followed Nya and Cole to the yard. 

It wasn’t okay. 

*** I hope you guys liked the first chapter. I’ll be updating once a week. Please leave comments and suggestions. See you next time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a little gun violence so please skip the chapter if this is something you do not think you can handle. I will provide a summary of the chapter at the end for those who skipped

Simple. That’s what Master Wu had said. He couldn’t be more wrong. A simple robbery managed to turn into a gun pointed at Jay’s head. Now, he had been paying attention but became...distracted. He saw a woman who he thought was in danger but it turned out that she was to in on the robbery. So here he was acting as a human shield. 

He hadn’t been this scared since what happened with Nadakhan. He had never been good under pressure and cracking a joke was how he usually got rid of tension but unfortunately that wasn’t an option at the moment. 

“H-hey. We don’t have to get violent” Jay stammered as he felt the cool metal pressed against his head. 

There were three robbers. One had the gun to his head and the other two had their guns pointed at the other ninja. 

“Why don’t we all take a break and put down the gun” said Cole mostly confident. 

“Well, we would have liked to get out of here without any injuries but it doesn’t look possible anymore” yelled the man as he shoved the gun more into his head. 

Jay was shaking. For the first time in his life he froze. All the yells his friends had made to try in warn him were quickly drowned out by the thumping of his heart. Sweat was starting to fall down his forehead as he looked to his friends for help. They all looked scared and upset. 

“Okay. We get it. What do you want?” Kai yelled. 

The woman stepped forward and said “we want a car and two hundred thousand in cash or your friend here is going to have a bullet between his eyes”.

The ninja informed the police as to the request and it was approved after a grueling hour of constant fear. 

“Since we got you what you want hand over Jay” said Nya. 

“Not yet. We need some insurance first” said the robber as he grabbed Jay by the shoulder. 

Jay had been trying to spark his lightning to no avail. He was so scared that he wasn’t able to use it. 

“You got what you wanted. Why can’t you just let me go?” Mumbled Jay. 

They ignored him as they pulled him closer to their body. They made their way outside to the car and cash that was waiting. 

“You have everything you asked for. Release Jay” yelled Zane. 

One of the men began moving towards the car but Jay but suddenly pointed the gun at Jay’s leg and shot. 

Before anyone could react the robbers were in the car driving away. Jay withered in pain on the ground crying as he clutched his leg. 

“JAY! We need a medic” Screamed Cole as he put pressure on the wound. 

What happened next was a bit of a mystery. More screaming and crying ensued by Jay couldn’t tell where it was coming from. 

(Three days later)

Jay woke up to a freezing room. He’d never been so cold. His leg felt numb and he wasn’t able to move it. His eyes were so heavy so while he was able to hear none of his friends knew he was awake. 

“Please stop. I do not want to do that again” said who he assumed was Zane. 

“This wouldn’t have happened if you guys listened to me before” yelled Kai. 

“Well what did you want us to say Kai?!? Sorry Jay but we think you should take a break from the team until your fighting skills improve. Do you know how he’d react?!?” responded Cole harshly. 

“STOP IT NOW! Our priority is to make sure Jay recovers. We can talk about this once he’s well. It’s going to be okay” said Nya. 

It wasn’t okay 

The truth finally came out. Jay kept a blank face which he was able to achieve due to him taking acting lessons in school. It was really hard. He wanted to cry but knew he couldn’t. He didn’t want to make his friends feel bad for probably saying the truth. He decided to just stay asleep because he didn’t want to face his friends. Eventually he did drift off and woke up to a hand stroking his head. 

“Jay dear, please wake up” said a soft voice. 

Jay was able to tell it was his mom so he slowly opened his eyes. Edna jumped on him. 

“Geez Edna you’re going to strangle the poor boy” laughed Ed as he hugged jay as well. 

After about five minutes of jay slowly suffocating, they finally pulled apart. 

“How does your leg feel sweety?” asked his mom. 

“I honestly don’t even remember what happened” moaned Jay as he touched the bandaids around his leg. 

“Well son, you went on a mission and the burglars ended up taking you hostage. Before they escaped they shot you in the leg to distract everyone so they could get away. The bullet almost hit your femoral artery. It missed it by a few inches” explained his dad. 

Everything was honestly a bit fuzzy. All he remembered was getting dragged and waking up here. He couldn’t forget the conversation his “friends” had of course. 

As he tried to stand up, his mom pushed him down saying “now jay you have to stay off of that foot or it won’t get better”.

Jay rolled his eyes and mumbled “really mom?” 

“Yes son. If you ever want to be a ninja again then you need to not use that foot. That is if we let you go back” mumbled Ed. 

Jay decided to ignore it assuming that they didn’t actually feel that way. 

“So....any of the guys here?” Asked Jay skeptically. 

“They had an emergency mission but they said that we should call them when you wake up which is what I will go do” said Edna happily. 

Jay huffed. Of course they didn’t need him on the mission. They were probably only here for an hour. After his mom came back and told him that his friends were on their way they gave him a kiss and said goodbye. 

He had some time to himself and decided to reflect on the mission. He should have focused better he knew that he should have seen passed the woman’s facade. Why couldn’t he see the signs? Before he could dwell on it further he heard a knock on the door. 

“JAY! Can we come in?” yelled Cole. 

His eardrums almost split and he managed to get a weak “yes” out of him. The door was thrown open and they a horde of different colors ran to hug him. 

For a second jay forgot that he was angry at his friends and relished in the physical contact. 

“We were so worried”

“How’s your foot?”

“Can you walk?” 

Jay’s head was spinning from all of the questions and chuckled “guys...give me some space. Yes, my foot hurts and according to my mom who made it very clear I’m not supposed to walk on it.”

“I am glad that your leg is healing” said master Wu. 

“You really scared us back there” said Nya as she played with his hair. 

“Zane thought that he was gonna have to amputate” said Lloyd. 

“I’m fine guys. It’s just a little sore. I can’t remember much honestly. My mom told me that you guys were on a mission. What happened?” asked Jay. 

“A few of the pyro snakes were causing trouble so we had to go take care of it but otherwise we were here the whole time” said Cole. 

“You’re one to talk Cole. You kept sneaking out to the cafeteria to get cake” laughed Kai. 

Cole sent a mini earthquake in Kai’s direction and he fell down. 

“Since you might be here for awhile we brought some of your things to occupy your time” smiled Zane as he handed Jay his phone, notebook with his inventions, and a sketch pad. He also took a colorfully wrapped paper our from behind him. 

“We thought that since you might be here awhile that we would get you this to keep you occupied” smiled Nya as she gave it to him. 

Jay carefully took the item and unwrapped it. Inside was the video game prime empire. 

“No way! How’d you get this? It hasn’t even come out yet” asked Jay happily. 

“Being a ninja has its perks” laughed Lloyd. 

“Thanks guys! I can’t wait to play it said Jay as he put it down next to him. 

He used to play prime empire all the time when he was a kid. 

“When will you be released from the hospital?” asked master Wu. 

Jay didn’t answer though it was starting to get really hot. 

“Kai can you turn down the heat a little. It’s a bit too hot in here” asked Jay as he fanned his face. 

They all shared a bewildered face. 

“Jay, it’s 60 degrees in the room currently” responded Zane. 

“No way. There must be something up with your internal temperature. “ huffed Jay as he started to turn red. 

“I think I will fetch the doctor” said Wu as he quickly left. 

The others stood over him panicked. Jay was fine one minute ago. What happened? The doctors rushed in and determined that he was very dehydrated. They hooked some fluids up to him and asked the rest of the ninja to leave. 

None of them wanted to go but they quietly shuffled out saying goodbye to Jay. The doctors also administered a sleeping pill so he was starting to drift off. His last thought was of the game prime empire. 

*** I hope you guys liked this chapter. Please leave any reviews or comments. Have a nice week:)

Chapter summary: Jay got shot on a mission in the leg and was at the hospital. As a present his friends got him the game Prime Empire. That’s the main plot of the chapter


	3. Chapter 3

Jay woke up feeling pretty sore. His leg still felt a bit numb but he wanted some exercise. He used crutches to help him get us and proceeded to walk around. He ended in the cafeteria taking a seat at a table. 

“Hey! Do you mind if I sit?” asked a teenager who looked to be around his age. He had black hair and freckles like Jay. 

“Sure! I’m jay” he smiled

“Max. Hope you don’t mind my broken arm taking up space” he laughed. 

He was currently wearing a stiff blue cast that had his arm wrapped up. 

Jay, who was never great at making friends went back to awkwardly eating his waffles. 

After a few moments of silence Max said “I’m not gonna lie. I really want to take a picture with you”.

Jay gave a skeptical look and said “really?!? You want a picture with the most annoying ninja?”

“What!?! You’re actually my favorite. Having lightning powers is so cool. You can literally kill someone and bring them back to life” laughed Max. 

Jay smiled and took Max’s phone to take the picture. “So how’d you break your arm?”

“Well, this is gonna sound kinda dumb so don’t laugh. I was playing video games and my foot fell asleep. When I stood up I kinda maybe fell on my arm” said Max sheepishly. 

Jay cracked up “wow. I mean sorry but that’s hilarious. I play video games too and the trick is that you have to use a heating pad on them before getting up so they aren’t numb”.

“Well you sound like you spend a lot of time on video games. So....I’m assuming your leg got hurt because of some ninja business” said Max. 

“I kinda got shot in the leg. It really hurt but it’s heal.... shoot I just remembered. My friends got me the prime empire. You up for a few rounds” nudged Jay. 

“WHAT?!? How did you get that?” Asked Max excitedly. 

“Being a ninja has its perks” winked Jay. 

After quickly devouring what was left of their breakfast, Max and jay basically ran to Jay’s room. 

“Okay! So basically we gotta defeat the emperor so we need to stock up on items” smiled Jay. 

They proceeded to pick their avatars which consisted of their characters having blue skin and some cool clothes. They played for hours only stopping when a nurse came in with Jay’s dinner. 

“Well....this crap looks like the kind of thing Cole would make” Jay muttered to himself. 

“At least it’s half edible” laughed Max. 

Jay hadn’t thought about his friends all day. He was kind of enjoying talking to someone who wasn’t one of his ninja friends. When he checked his phone he saw that he had tons of messages from his parents and one text from Nya. He instantly grimaced. They must be enjoying having him away. 

Max noticing Jay’s grimace asked “you okay? Something happen?” 

Jay froze for a second. He never told anyone about what had been going on with his friends but Max seemed pretty easy to talk to. “They all call me annoying sometimes. As a joke though. They also don’t think I’m the best fighter. It’s stupid. I shouldn’t be upset or something so small”. 

“You have every right to be upset. It isn’t funny unless everyone is laughing. A few months ago I was getting bullied pretty badly. They all called me names and even beat me up when the teachers weren’t looking” replied Max. 

Jay couldn’t believe it. “That same thing happened to me except they also called me garbage boy since I grew up in a scrap yard”.

“Looks like we have a lot in common! You know tonight is a small comic con and I have an extra ticket. My brother Ronnie was supposed to come but he came down with a bad flu. You want to come with me?” asked max excitedly. 

“Of course! That’s so cool. Should we cosplay?” asked Jay excitedly. 

“Haha of course. We should probably sign out of the hospital so we can get a costume. I was thinking something DC” smirked Max. 

“What. Nah. I’m a marvel guy at heart” laughed Jay. 

“Great! I was just testing ya” said Max. 

After grabbing the tickets and some money they made their way to the front desk. 

“Hi! We would like to sign out for a couple of hours. I’m Jay walker and this is max....”

“Max Stroud”

“It looks like Jay is in the system but I don’t see you max. When were you admitted?” asked the nurse kindly. 

“Oh boy. This might take awhile. Why don’t you go sit down Jay” whined Max. 

Jay rolled his eyes and sat in the closest seat. He could see max trying to convince the nurse that he was a patient there. Jay turned away and looked at hi phone. 

A text from Zane popped up saying “hello Jay! We wanted to know if you’d like to come to the monestary for dinner. One of us can pick you up and drive you back to the hospital after”.

Jay rolled his eyes and texted back “can’t. I’m doing something tonight already”. Then he powered down his phone not wanting to be distracted tonight. 

Max walked over a second later smiling with the forms in his hand. “We’re all set”.

They both walked to a costume store to look for the best costumes. 

“So I’m thinking of being Thor because I can actually make the hammer look real” said jay excitedly. 

“Don’t you need to be good looking to be Thor” laughed Max as he nudged Jay. 

“Haha. You’re so funny. I have an idea. Why don’t you be Loki. It will be so much fun” yelled jay who quickly apologized to the store for screaming. 

They picked out the perfect costumes and Jay got a pretty realistic looking hammer. Besides his foot being in a cast everything was perfect. Max looked great too in his get up. 

They were at the register when Jay noticed Max’s eye begin to twitch. “You okay? Your eye is kinda spazzing out”.

“Oh I’m fine. I guess looking at the tv screen for so long damaged my eye. It was bound to happen eventually” he laughed. 

After taking the subway for what felt like six hours to Jay they made it to the building. They quickly went to the bathroom to change into their costumes. When they walked out, they saw hundreds of people in all sorts of costumes. 

One person was pac man, another he-man, and even the emperor from the prime empire. Dozens of people came up the take pictures with Jay and Max. He even used his lighting on the hammer. 

“Let’s go look at the comics” begged max. 

Jay followed and they made their way towards the comic stand. A lot of the comics were vintage and jay came across some old starfarer comics. His biological father known as cliff Gordon played the character of fritz and used to be his idol. He threw it back into the pile. After what happened with Nadakhan he had avoided anything to do with him. All jay knew was that he got the letter in the mail but refused to open it. 

“Why so sad. Couldn’t find an issue one of starfarer?” Asked Max. 

“Eh. Something like that” jay said sadly. 

“What happened?” whispered Max. 

“Promise not to tell anyone. I just met you today and already I’m trusting you with this shit. I found out that the actor cliff Gordon is my biological dad. I inherited his estate but I don’t want it. I know it sounds selfish but he abandoned me. ” muttered Jay. 

“I swear your secret is safe with me. I happen to be a boss at keeping them. Wow! I totally understand what you mean. I grew up in foster care and recently found out my biological dad was a drug addict. He gave me and Ronnie up when I was five and he was three. Everyone has problems. There isn’t anything to be ashamed of” replied Max as he looked through other comics. 

After finding a few captain America comics they made their way past a stage that said “costume contest”. 

“Ooh we should totally do it. You could make the lighting come out of the hammer. We will win for sure!” Said Max as he pulled jay towards the stage. 

Jay pulled back for a second. “I don’t want people recognizing me. I’m kinda having fun being a nobody”.

“It’s fine. We’ll just say you created some mechanism” nodded Max. 

Jay reluctantly agreed and followed after Max. There was a huge line. He saw Disney princesses, Star Wars, Star Trek, and evening a few people dressed as the ninja. They had to wait a whole hour before their turns. To pass the time jay talked about his missions and Max told him some hilarious stories about how he and his brother got into trouble as kids. 

“So you actually lite that cigarette?”

“Yep and you can bet I was coughing for a week”. 

Finally it was their turns. They made their way up the the stage and jay sent a charge of lightning through the hammer which earned him tons of excited wows. Max pretended to be hit by the lightning and fell. The applause was ear splitting. 

Twenty minutes later the announcer came up on stage and said “both the judges and audience agree that the winner is Thor and Loki”.

Jay grabbed onto max as they walked up the stage. They even did an encore with jay and max acting out the fight between Loki and Thor from the first avengers. They got some medals and giveaways and bowed. 

Jay hadn’t had so much fun in years. It felt nice to be himself without fear of being judged. 

After the went to get some food and shared their love of anthropology with each other. 

“I have no one to talk to about this stuff. It’s really nice to have someone to talk to” smiled Jay. 

After devouring a double chocolate cake they then came to a booth and saw some key chains. 

“Which one do you think I should get? We should get a pair!!” asked max

“Hmm I do like a good Han Solo. How about you get Luke and I get solo? I do possess the natural charisma that solo is known for” laughed Jay. 

“Oh sure! Okay but Luke is still cooler” said max sticking his tongue out. 

After that they walked around for awhile until jay said, “I’m kinda getting tired. Maybe we should head back. My leg is starting to hurt again”.

“I want to just do one more panel. It’s the prime empire one” begged max. 

Jay sighed and followed Max. When they go there there were hundreds of people sitting in seats. 

Soon an announcer came up and and began to talk. Jay was on the edge of his seat. The one that his friends got him was just a trial so he didn’t have access to all the levels. The announcer talked about the improved graphics which were getting a huge upgrade and even touched on some Sever levels. What caught his attention was something else he said. 

“Each game comes with a special wrist band that connects all your data to the server. It allows you to play anywhere you want and access items from your account once the game goes on sale tomorrow” said the announcer as he showed off a sleek white wrist band. 

He pressed on it showing all of its features. It was so cool! A video game that had this kind of power was so cool. Jay smiled brightly at Max. They sat for a few more minutes listening about new characters, locations, and weapons before jay felt a pain in his leg. 

“Hey Max! Do you mind if we head back? My legs acting up” said Jay. 

Max groaned but agreed and they went to the bathroom to change. They put their costumes in a bag and got their coats. 

Jay turned on his phone to see hundreds of messages from his friends asking if he was okay and where he went. They all sounded worried but he didn’t really care. He just listened to max gush about the new wrist band feature. 

“Doesn’t it look so cool? I’m honestly never gonna take it off. We can even pla....” but max wasn’t able to finish. 

Suddenly five ninjas jumped down in front of him. 

“Who are you?”

“Get away from jay”

For a second it looked like they were about to attack max but jay jumped in front. 

“What are you guys doing? He’s my friend. Back off” yelled Jay as he shoved Kai back. 

“Where were you? You send an ominous text to Zane without explanation and just shut your phone off. You don’t think we’d be worried?” yelled Kai. 

Zane put an arm on Kai to calm him down. 

“Listen Jay, we thought something bad happened. We were just worried” said Nya. 

“I can take care of myself. I don’t need you to protect me” spat Jay as lightning built up around him. 

“You’re the one that got held as a hostage who WE had to rescue” screamed Kai. 

“Kai, that’s enough” said Cole sternly 

He backed down and the lightning around jay disappeared. 

“I am sorry jay. I was unsure of what to do especially when you didn’t pick up your phone” said Zane apologetically. 

“Whatever Max and I need to leave” huffed jay as he pushed past Lloyd. 

“Jay....”

“Save it lloyd” 

Jay dragged max away as they quickly walked away leaving the ninja stunned. 

“You shouldn’t let them push you around. You’re much more powerful then them. I believe in you” smiled max

“You’re right. I’ll show them what I can do” muttered jay. 

It was going to be okay

****I know it’s a bit early but I hope you enjoy. See you next week:)


	4. Chapter 4

The ninja sat around the monestary all day feeling pretty shitty. 

“Perhaps we should apologize” voiced Zane. 

After what happened with Jay and his friends, he had been ignoring their calls since last night. It was already six with no answer from Jay. 

“For what? He knows better than to send a text like that” fumed Cole. 

Nya glared at Cole. 

“Maybe we were a bit harsh on him” said Kai guiltily. 

They all huffed and when back to staring at their phones. They finished training with master Wu earlier and had been hoping jay would contact them. No such luck of course. 

(Now we go to jay)

If jay could sprint that’s exactly what he’d be doing right now. Him and max signed out of the hospital with no trouble this time and made their way to the video game store. 

“So how long do you think the line will be?”  
asked Jay anxiously. 

“Well we are three hours early so hopefully no more than four hours” laughed Max. 

“What? That’s crazy!” smiled Jay. 

There were tons of people in line. Someone was even sleeping on the sidewalk. 

“So....you’ve always been a fan of video games?” asked Max. 

“Well...I kinda didn’t have many friends growing up so I spent a lot of time playing” muttered Jay. 

“I think you’re pretty cool” said Max with a small twitch of his eye. 

They waited for another two hours with Jay’s phone constantly vibrating with messages from his friends. He ignored them, including Nya. Finally they made their way to the front of the line. 

“How many?” asked the exhausted woman who was selling the games. 

“Just one and I got it” smiled max as he handed the lady the cash. 

“You didn’t have to do that” smiled Jay. 

“I’m always willing to help a friend out” laughed Max as he tossed jay the game. 

Upon checking the time jay realized that he should probably text his friends. He sent a quick text to Nya saying that he’s fine and will probably be back tomorrow. 

“Why don’t we spend the night at my place? I got a sick tv” nudged max. 

“Sure! What about the hospital though? Don’t we have to sign out?” asked Jay. 

“Don’t worry I took care of it” smiled max. 

As they walked down the street there were tons of people talking about the new game. It took them awhile to get to Max’s place. It was under a pizza store and had a few TVs with a lot of people. 

“Is this place legal?” laughed jay. 

“Um....well there is a bit of alcohol but you wouldn’t rat us out” said Max. 

Jay just shrugged and went to sit down by a few people. People were already playing the game. Jay opened his game and took out the wrist band. 

While that was happening someone came up to him and said “so...what’s a nice guy like you doing here?” 

Jay quickly turned and saw a guy holding a cigarette between his hands. 

“My friend max brought me here” replied jay. 

“Yeah max is a regular here. Enjoying the game? I’m wade”. 

“The game looks cool. Max was gonna hook me up and put in my game” said Jay as he saw max motioning for him to come over. 

“Ready to put the game in? “ asked max. 

Jay nodded and inserted the game. They both turned their game wrists on and turned on the tv. After about a half hour they made their way to the bar. Max handed jay a drink. Jay never really was into the drinking but didn’t want to be a kill joy. 

“SO, HOW DID YOU FIND THIS PLACE” screamed Jay over the music. 

“I surfed the internet. I’m pretty good with that kind of stuff” smiled max. 

Soon enough everyone went to crowd around wade as he was already on the twelfth level. It was about this time that jay started to feel dizzy. He tried to stand up but felt his legs turn into jelly. He grabbed on to a chair but his arms wouldn’t work. His vision started to go blurry and he saw the shape of max walk up to him and then fell asleep. 

Next thing jay knew he woke up in a hospital bed with a horrible headache. He tried to lift his head but it was too hard. He opened his eyes and saw a worried Max looking at him. 

“Wha-what happened?” slurred Jay. 

“You were found passed out on a street corner” said Max. 

“Huh?!? Last thing I remember I was playing the game” said jay as he felt another headache happening. 

“It’s okay jay. I got you out before the cops came but you ended up running away” whispered max. 

“We got caught? Why do I feel so awful?” Moaned Jay. 

“The cops busted the place but I slipped us out before they came. Also there were some drugs in your drink. I don’t know how they got there” responded max. 

Jay grabbed his phone and saw the missed calls. “Shit”

“Hey it’s okay. Just relax and watch some tv. I’ll deal with your friends” said Max as he took Jay’s phone and turned on the tv. 

Jay was sweating. He couldn’t remember anything. His head was pounding. He tried to focus on the tv but his vision was still blurry so he tried to listen. 

The news reporter was taking about some party but jay wasn’t paying attention until he heard the name wade. His ears perked up. 

“According to reports there was an illegal speakeasy under Antonio’s pizza. While all of the teenagers were apprehended there is reports of about twenty teenagers that went missing according to security footage of the teens entering but not leaving”. 

The reporter continued to say “the teenagers seemed to playing the popular new prime empire game. We will keep you updated”. 

Jay turned off the tv. His memory was foggy but that didn’t seem right. All of those teens gone? 

Not only that but when he looked at the wrist band on his wrist, it was showing a blue glow. He tried to tear it off but it wouldn’t budge. It was locked or something. 

Before he could think more about it max came back in. “I told your friends that you ate some bad hospital food. Since you’re nineteen you don’t have to tell them the truth”. 

“But what happened to all those people. They said about twenty are missing. I don’t understand” ranted Jay. 

“Like I said. We got out before they got in” said Max nonchalantly. 

Jay didn’t seem so convinced. 

“Hey I think the doc said we can remove our casts today. I guess that’s something to look forward to” smiled max 

“Sure” said Jay. 

A half hour later the doctor came in to cut his cast off. It felt sore but nice to be able to get his foot wet. 

“I think I’m gonna call me friends” said jay. 

“Why don’t we chill a bit grab dinner?” said max. 

“I really need to call my friends. They should be on the missing person case” responded Jay as he grabbed his phone. 

“Ugh fine. I’m gonna go get my cast cut off. See Ya later” waved max. 

Jay quickly called Cole. He was pretty grounded. He could help him make sense of this. 

After a few rings Cole picked up “hello?”

“It’s me cole. Something weird happened” 

“Jay!! Are you okay? We haven’t heard from you” 

“I’m fine Cole. I want to go back to the monastery. My cast came off. Can you pick me up asked jay?” 

“Sure! I’ll be there in twenty minutes”

Jay went to the front desk to sign himself out and then went to find max. He found him sitting in the hall. 

“H-ey Max. I’m checking out today so I wanted to say bye” said jay. 

“Aw well can I give you my number? Maybe we can hang out some time” smiled Max. 

“Sure”. Jay had a funny feeling about max. He was the one who gave him the drink. Why would he want to drug him. He was his friend. Maybe they could meet up to try to piece together what happened. 

He made his way towards the pickup and saw Cole pull up in a car. 

He got out and went to go hug jay “hey! It’s great to see you standing on two feet” laughed Cole. 

Jay tried to smile but he still had a funny feeling. “I need to talk to everyone”. 

Cole just shrugged as he made his way towards the monastery. 

When they walked inside jay was met with crushing hugs. After a few minutes of apologies and catching up jay motioned for everyone to sit down. 

“What’s wrong jay?” asked Zane worriedly. 

“Well....last night I was at the speakeasy....”

“What!?!”

“Are you okay?”

“What the hell happened”

After master Wu smacked the table jay continued. 

“I-I went with the guy max. The one you jumped to the place. We hung out...”

“That place is illegal. You don’t even know this Max guy” said Kai. 

“He’s a good guy. I don’t think he intended anything bad to happen. So...we were having fun playing the new prime empire game when suddenly max handed me a drink. A few minutes later I felt dizzy. Next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital. Almost all the people who I was with are all missing. Max said he got me out before the police came” finished jay. 

“So you’re telling us that you committed a crime? Do you want us to arrest you?” asked Lloyd. 

“What? No! The missing people. I saw them. Something bad must’ve happened” said jay. 

“You’re overthinking this. They probably went out the back” said Nya. 

“No. I have a bad feeling. We should also look into this” said jay. 

“Listen Jay. This is a police matter. We deal with oni, dragon killers, ghosts, and robots. Not this! This isn’t our responsibility. Not only that but you could’ve been arrested with the others. At least max got you out. You probably drank too much” scoffed Kai. 

“No. I’m serious. This wasn’t normal. Aren’t any of you concerned” screamed jay. 

“WE ARE CONCERNED. We can’t trust you. You were high on drugs” said Lloyd. 

“None is you ever take me seriously. I’ll prove it. You guys continue to play stupid. I’m not letting this go” yelled Jay and he got up and made his way towards his room. 

He sat down on his bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. When he was done we put on his gi and went to try and get some answers. On his way out he he passed his friends as they sat at the table.


	5. Chapter 5

Jay furiously made his way down the steps. They thought that he was stupid. He knew something had to be up. He made his way towards the police station. 

When he got to the front desk he tried to sound as serious ad professional as possible saying “hello. My name is Jay and I need to speak to the chief urgently”. 

The man just continued to look at the computer ignoring jay. 

“I’m one of the ninja. It’s about the missing people” muttered Jay. 

The man pointed to a door on the left. “Knock loudly”. 

Jay gave him a strange look and proceeded to pound on the door. 

“Dammit. Another ship ruined” screamed the chief and he opened the door. “What do you want? Oh you’re one of the ninja excuse my outburst.”

He motioned for jay to sit down. 

“Where is the rest of your team?” asked the chief. 

“Well they decided to only send me. I wanted to talk about the people who disappeared last night” said jay nervously. 

“We already determined that most of them were run always. We believe they slipped out the ba...”

“Wait. Doesn’t that seem strange? All those people just disappeared” said Jay. 

“Listen kid, it’s not a huge mystery what happened. Some kids under the legal age to drink had a party and snuck out before we got there. They’re all over eighteen so none of them are really missing” muttered the chief as he worked on his new boat. 

“I don’t think that’s right. Some...”

“Commissioner, It’s been reported that fifteen juveniles have gone missing. They want you to make a press conference” said deputy bontt. 

“Hmm..probably just some trouble making kids that went missing. I’ll be right out” said the chief. 

“I don’t think they are runaways. You just don’t feel like doing any work” jay accused. 

The chief looked up angry and said “don’t tell me how to do my job. You may be a ninja but you are still a vigilante. Do anything illegal, and I’ll be the first to know”.

He pushed past jay and slammed the door. Jay was red from anger and embarrassment. Why didn’t people think there was something going on? Even if they were runaways that didn’t mean that they didn’t matter. 

He growled and got up to leave. As he was walking out of the building about ten reporters came up to him. 

“What are the ninja doing to help?”

“Do you believe that the missing people want to be found?”

“Are there any leads?”

“Sorry no comment” said Jay as he pushed past them. 

He decided to go to the park to clear his mind. He took out his phone and thankfully saw no texts from his team mates. 

He needed to talk to someone that would take him seriously. That ruled out most people. He was scrolling through his phone and saw skylor’s name. She was always pretty understanding and never made a joke at his expense. 

He decided to walk over to her for a quick conversation. When he got to the doors he almost turned around. What is she also didn’t believe him? There was no turning back as he went in. 

A few seconds later skylor came up to seat him when she realized that it was jay. 

“Hi jay! Is it just you or the others are also coming?” asked skylor. 

“It’s just me. Can I talk to you about something?” asked jay anxiously. 

Skylor nodded as she invited him to a private booth. 

“So...is something wrong with Kai?” asked skylor. 

“What? No. I need your help” said jay. 

“Oh. So what the problem?” asked skylor curiously. 

“So you know how a lot of people have been going missing? Well I think there is more to it. The others keep telling me that I’m overreacting. I was at the speakeasy. There was no way for all those people to go missing. I didn’t know who else to talk to” said jay. 

Skylor looked perplexed for a moment before replying “something strange does seem to be happening but it’s probably just something to do with drugs or other illegal activity”

“No! Something else is going on” yelled Jay. 

“I think you’re just a little paranoid after the robbery. I’ll go call your friends to pick you up” said skylor as she stood up. 

“Wait! Don’t call them. I’ll leave” spat jay. 

“Jay....”

He angrily stomped to a bench. He had to figure out more. Suddenly he remembered that he talked to a guy named wade at the event. If he could track his family down and prove that there is something fishy going on. He was about to go to the library when he felt his phone vibrating. He picked it up without looking. 

“Jay...where are you? Skylor called us saying you were raving about the missing people. I want to bring you back to the monastery. We could all talk there” said Cole worriedly. 

“I’m busy. I may have a lead” said Jay as he went to hang up. 

Cole tried calling ten times before he gave up. Jay completely powered down his phone and went into the building. He quickly walked inside while a few people requested pictures, he pushed them back. 

He went to sit at a computer to find out who wade was. He typed in the name with about two million hits. He groaned and realized that he’d have to narrow it down. He went on Facebook and put the name in. He decided to put ninjago next to wade and got thirty two hits. 

After a couple of adults, he found who he was looking for. He quickly went to his profile and clicked on the photos. Most of them were in front of a beach so it was hard getting a location. Fortunately he spotted a picture of wade in front of a house with the number fifty four. He typed it in and found twenty people with that number. He used google earth to find the house. He wrote it down and quickly logged off. 

It was an hour walk so he decided to take the bus. When he got on he noticed a couple of kids playing a hand held version of prime empire. 

“C’mon Richie! You’re on the twelfth level it’s my turn. I gotta get home soon” yelled one of the other kids. 

“Bug off Eddie. Scared your mom’s gonna find out that you skipped your doctor’s appointment? She’ll shove those pills down your throat even if you aren’t sick.” laughed Richie. 

They shoved each other playfully. 

Jay smiled seeing the kids. Finally it was his stop and walked off. He looked around finally seeing the old brick house. He nervously went up to the door and mentally prepared himself to go in. 

He rang the door bell and a child about ten years old opened the door. 

“Are your parents here?” asked jay enthusiastically. 

“Are you a real ninja? You’re gi looks like a costume” said the child. 

“Um yes I’m a ninja. Can you please go get your parents?” asked jay anxiously. 

“Ugh...fine but you better give me an autograph before you leave”.

A woman pushed the child out of the way and quietly invited jay in. “Are you here about wade’s disappearance?”

“Uh yes. The commissioner sent me. He split the rest of us up. Can you tell me about wade the last few days?” asked jay. 

“Well...he’s been a bit occupied with the prime empire game” smiled the woman whose face fell into a frown. 

“Can I get a look in his room? We want to see if there is any information about his disappearance” said jay. 

The woman nodded as she led him upstairs. “He’s a good boy. He wouldn’t run away. If you need anything I’ll be downstairs”.

Jay nodded and entered his room and closed the door. The room looked like any typical teenager’s room. Comics everywhere, music tapes, and some posters. Jay didn’t know where to start. We went over to wade’s desk and found a bunch of wrappers. 

While looking around more he stubbed his toe on something hard. 

“Shit!”

Jay cursed for another minute before bending down to see what he hit. It was a box and inside was a notebook. He opened it and it looked to be a sort of diary. When opened it seemed to have a lot of entries about his gaming. He kept track of who he played and points. Towards the end, there were a lot of paragraphs on the new prime empire game. He sounded excited and a little too obsessed. There wasn’t anything suspicious. He sighed and closed the book making sure to put it back where he found if. 

He walked down the stairs and was thanked. 

“Hey kid! I have something for you” said Jay as he took his lightning pin off his gi. “I’ll find your brother”.

The boy smiled and jay got up to leave. Just as he was about to shut the door, the woman grabbed his arm. 

“Wait! I have something for you. So you remember what he looks like” said the woman as she pressed the picture into Jay’s hands. 

He smiled and made his way towards the bus. Once on he pulled out his phone. He took a deep breath before he opened his messages. There were over a hundred. Most of them threatening to call the cops. 

He decided to call Nya and after not even a second she picked up. 

“Jay!! Please tell me where you are.” begged Nya. 

Jay sighed and said “I’m fine Nya. I just need time to clear my head. I’ll be back soon”.

Nya was about the say something else when he hung up. He decided to text max. He would understand and support jay. 

He texted him and they agreed to meet up at a small Chinese restaurant. 

“Hey Jay! What’s up?” Said max as he walked to the table. 

Jay fidgeted and finally said “I need your help. Something weird is going on with all the missing people. No one will believe me. I thought since you were with me you’d understand.”

“I get what you mean. Something is defiantly up. We should investigate” max replied. 

Jay smiled and was happy someone was listening to him. 

“I went to wade’s house and didn’t really learn anything except that he was obsessed with the prime empire” said Jay. 

“He went to the arcade a lot. We should investigate it tomorrow” said Max. 

They both agreed to meet at the arcade around 8:30 tomorrow morning with jay saying that he couldn’t sleep over by Max or his teammates were gonna call the cops. 

He dreaded going back to the monastery But knew he had to or they would freak. He trudged up the stairs worried about what he was about to experience. 

Once through the door, he saw his teammates sitting in the game room. He was about to sneak away when suddenly wu saw him. 

For a half hour his teammates chew him out. He was surprised though when everyone just grabbed him into a bear cub. 

“We just want you to be safe jay. We’re worried about you” said Zane. 

He nodded tiredly and agreed the two extra hours of training assigned to him tomorrow which he knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep since he was meeting max. 

He said goodnight and went to his room. The next morning he woke up and put on his gi and left his phone on his desk. He snuck out while everyone was asleep. 

He went for a jog in the park to kill some time. Around eight he made his way towards the arcade. At the entrance was max waving enthusiastically. 

“So it says open but no one is there. Why don’t you go through the back. I’ll sneak through the side” whispered Max. 

Jay agreed and went towards the back. Kinda odd for the arcade to be open but no one there. He shrugged and quietly went inside. 

“Max! Max!” Jay whispered yelled. 

He wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and tripped on a box. Next thing he knew, he woke up with a bump on his head. 

He got to his feet and made his way inside dizzily. The only game that was on was the prime empire game. It was glitching with a voice saying “do you want to enter the prime empire?”. It kept showing the prime empire logo going in and out. 

“What happened to max?” He thought out loud. 

He fired up his lightning for some light but the gane started to make weird noises. He accidentally touched the machine and he felt a powerful surge go through him. It felt like an out of body experience. He closed his eyes welcoming the dark.


End file.
